Tom Berenger Says He Didn’t Understand ‘Inception’ Plot Either

Tom Berenger was a 1980s mainstay, starring in “The Big Chill,” nominated for an Oscar for “Platoon,” but it’s been awhile since he’s appeared in a big, hyped summer movie. So we were surprised to see the 61-year-old actor turn up in a supporting role in “Inception,” Christopher Nolan’s mindbending new thriller. The film, about a team of experts who can mine people’s dreams for information, is being hailed as the smart savior for what’s so far been an underwhelming, unintelligent summer movie season. In the film, Berenger plays an aide-de-camp to the scion of a wealthy family who is the target of the dream manipulators.

Speakeasy talked with Berenger about the role and about his own bad dreams.

The Wall Street Journal: How did you come to be cast in the film?

I just got a call from my agent saying they want to see you. They were really fussy about the script. They didn’t want anyone to see it. So I read the script in a room and then handed it back in. Then I went in and read my scenes only.

What was your first impression of the story?

I went, whoa. I took my time with it. I didn’t race. But I have to say, after I finished it, if anybody had interrogated me under torture to tell them what exactly the plot was, I’d be hard put.

Did shooting demystify the material?

One time I started laughing on set. The little girl, Ellen [Page], she goes, ‘Wait a minute, is this a dream within a dream?’ I went, ‘oh, yeah, good question.’ I kind of lost it. I talked to one of the other actors and he said, ‘I’ve seen it three times and it takes a couple of times for you to nail it.’

Some are hoping “Inception” saves what’s been a lackluster summer movie season.

It is a little more cerebral. But I don’t want to get cerebral trying to explain it. You just sound foolish when you do because dreams are more subconscious anyway, right? It’s interesting how important they were to the ancient world. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans put a lot of stock in them… Of course the most famous one is Sitting Bull having a dream about Custer’s Seventh Cavalry falling from the sky, and interpreting that as they were going to defeat the cavalry.

Did the film make you pay closer attention to your dreams?

I did have this dream -– it was kind of a nightmare but not the worst kind — where I was trapped inside a car in an empty parking lot. The doors were locked and I couldn’t get out and it felt really claustrophobic. Which most of the time I feel on airplanes because they’re so small and crowded now. You fly on one of those three-seater planes — my God, the seats are really small. I thought they junked all these planes a decade ago.

Do you like all the special effects that have taken over filmmaking since you began?

I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing a movie that is no special effects and that’s shot as straight as could be. But, hey, what are you going to do? This film does have some pretty killer action sequences. It isn’t like it loses any of that. There’s a chase scene in Morocco. There’s a lot of that stuff for the summer movie masses.